No abstract

This article investigates how concern about equity has arisen in the planning and implementation of high-occupancy/toll lane projects, or so-called “HOT lanes.” Specifically, the research assesses (1) where and how equity issues have surfaced in the debate over HOT lanes and (2) how practicing planners have responded to these equity concerns. By looking explicitly at the planning process through a series of case studies and a review of newspaper coverage, the research suggests strategies for how practitioners can craft a comprehensive and meaningful framework for assessing and addressing equity issues.

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In the 1920s, traffic congestion was one of the primary issues concerning urban planners. At the time, traffic mitigation efforts boiled down to a fundamental conundrum: was the solution to traffic congestion more roads or more rules? This article chronicles the debates over traffic congestion relief in downtown Boston during that period, analyzing the two radical, competing proposals of roads, in the form of a major new surface thoroughfare called the Loop Highway, versus rules, in the form of stricter parking regulations. The article analyzes the debates over these proposals and the reasons why the city adopted neither approach. While politics had its hand in dooming the proposals, poor planning played a central role as well. The lack of a comparative analytical framework for evaluating the competing "roads" and "rules" proposals gave detractors the ammunition to oppose either approach on the grounds that the alternative approach would be superior.